Kier Stoke offers 'a day in the life of'

Published by Elizabeth Pokorny for Kier Services in Housing and also in Communities

Local Stoke residents and councillors invited behind the scenes with Kier

Kier Stoke opened its doors to local residents and councillors as it hosted its first tenant and councillor open day with Stoke-on-Trent City Council offering a first-hand glimpse of ‘A day in the life of Kier’.

Local resident associations, city neighbourhood forums, tenant panels and service improvement panel members attended an open day on 18 October with local councillors visiting on 10 October.

Held at Kier Stoke’s headquarters on Cromer Road, the open days allowed attendees to witness a typical day in the life of a Kier craft technician, starting with a visit to the resource control centre where customer calls and repairs are logged. The visitors then travelled to view void properties in the city and witness first hand Kier’s work on site.

Cllr Janine Bridges, Stoke-on-Trent City Council cabinet member for housing, neighbourhoods and community safety, said: “The open day was an opportunity to showcase the success of the responsive repairs and voids services to our customers, highlighting changes and improvements to the service over the last 18 months. It proved to be a great success and was very well received by customers, showing how the partnership between the council and Kier Stoke works and demonstrating how the repairs service is performing.”

Tenants who attended the open day were positive about their experience with Kier craft technicians and commended them for their professionalism. Attendees also expressed an increased awareness of the challenges faced by Kier and how it operates on a day-to-day basis to deliver its services. Comments included:

• “A most informative and interesting experience, very useful. I previously knew nothing of how Kier worked; please may more people have this experience.”
• “It has been a very interesting and beneficial experience for me and I am delighted to have attended. I have learnt a great deal and would recommend anyone else to attend an event like this.”
• “Thank you for spending so much time with us and organising the event. It’s clear Kier craft technicians work extremely hard to maintain the standards we are used to.”

Attendees were also provided with a guest talk from Stoke-on-Trent City Council quality surveyor, Lee Harrison.